INGSA Horizons

INGSA Horizon Series - In-depth conversations with the leading global experts at the science/society/policy interface.

Prof John Lavis is the Co-Lead of the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges.

Dr Soledad Quiroz-Valenzuela is an INGSA Vice-President and one of the Commissions that was charged with investigating opportunities to arm the world's policy-makers with the world's best evidence.

The Global Commissi...

In a special, bonus episode we bring you the latest discussion from the Science for Policy Podcast. If you are interested in the science/policy/society interfaces then we recommend you check out their extensive back-catalogue of episodes! 

Find out more at www.sapea.info and thanks to the Science for Policy podcast for sharing their chat with INGSA President, Prof Remi Quirion on the languages of global science advice. 

For more from...

Featuring:

• Prof Anna Davies Trinity, Centre for Smart and Sustainable Cities
• Prof Edgar Pieterse, African Centre for Cities
• Ms Alice Charles, World Economic Forum Geneva
• Mr John Mauro, City of Port Townsend, Washington
• Prof Marie-Christine Therrien, Cité-ID Liv­ing Lab

Cities are increasingly the key implementer of international, national, and local policy. They are where policy and theory intersect directly with people’s lives....

How can knowledge from the social sciences and humanities be better utilised by policymakers to address our sustainability challenges and complement traditional technological and physical scientific advice? What happens when different types of advice challenge one another? And how can different types of social science contribute to solutions from different perspectives.

Featuring:

• Dr Jean Lebel, International Development Research...

Featuring:

• A/Prof Manuela Fernández Pinto, Universidad de los Andes
• A/Prof Heather Douglas, Michigan State University
• Mr David Mair, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission
• Prof Dr Asma Ismail, Academy of Sciences Malaysia

Making space for public values in science advice to government is heralded as a protection against technocracy, and yet the legitimacy of scientific knowledge derives from endorsement by peers, not t...

The concept of ‘foresight’ has been in and out of fashion with governments for decades, and the science community has been calling attention to long-term issues for even longer. Yet, the world was still unprepared for Covid-19 in the same way that we will be surprised when the impact of climate change and other SDG challenges begin to accelerate through cumulative impact cycles.

Why do successive governments fail to act? Does scien...

Featuring:

• Prof Salim Abdool Karim, CAPRISA Professor of Global Health at Columbia University

• Inès Hassan, Senior Projects Manager at the International Science Council

When dealing with a crisis, everybody wants certainty – citizens want reassurance, scientists want facts, policymakers want solutions. How can scientists and policymakers navigate a situation where there is no certainty, where scientific consensus can shift sud...

Science advice is built on a foundation of established models of knowledge production, policy-making and the science-policy-society relationship. But all of these are currently in flux. How do we provide advice in a context when foundational assumptions are changing? This panel explores key examples of changing discourses and how they intersect and interact to form new social, economic, technological and intellectual paradigms.

Feat...

Featuring:

• Prof Daniel Sarewitz, Emeritus Professor, Arizona State University
• Prof Sabina Leonelli, Philosophy and History of Science, University of Exeter

Even before the pandemic, the role that robust knowledge and experts played in our democracies was a complicated one. Technology, globalisation, demographic change, and other major shifts in all of our lives feel like they have been moving faster than the collective proces...